UK net migration halves after huge drop in non-EU arrivals

UK net migration has halved after a huge drop in non-EU arrivals.

It was an estimated 171,000 in the 12 months to December 2025.

The figure is down 48 per cent year-on-year, the Office for National Statistics said, to the lowest level since early 2021.

Net migration, the difference between the number of people moving long-term to the country and the number of people leaving, has been falling for much of the past three years.

The total peaked at a record 944,000 in the year to March 2023 but has since dropped sharply, reaching 204,000 in the year to June 2025.

New estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), released today, cover the 12 months to December 2025 and show an even lower figure.

The fall in net migration is being driven by two trends.

A steady decline in people from outside the EU coming to the UK to work, study or join other family members, and a rise in the number of people leaving the UK for other countries, primarily non-EU students who have completed their education.

The drop in people coming to study and work is due to policy changes introduced by the previous Conservative government and continued by the current Labour administration.

These changes began in January 2024 when most overseas students were no longer able to bring family members to the UK.

From March 2024, care workers could no longer bring family members with them to the country and from April 2024, the salary threshold was increased for people wishing to come to the UK on a skilled worker visa, along with the income threshold for a family visa.

In July 2025, the Labour Government introduced further changes, including ending overseas recruitment for care workers and raising the salary threshold again for skilled worker visas.

Home Office data shows visa applications have fallen sharply since these changes began and have continued to drop in 2026.

The new ONS estimates show net migration in the year to December 2025 was under 200,000 for the first time.

It was last below this level at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when it stood at 132,000 in the 12 months to March 2021.

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